The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Fluid biological specimens are routinely collected and analyzed for a variety of medical and other purposes. It is commonplace for a patient visiting a medical facility for evaluation and/or treatment to be asked to deposit a urine specimen in a cup and provide that specimen to a medical professional for testing. It is also increasingly common for athletes involved in competitive sports to be required to provide a urine specimen which may be divided into two or more sample vials in order to test those athletes for illegal performance enhancing drugs or practices such as doping. More than one sample of the specimen is typically taken from the cup and preserved in the event that the results of one sample analysis are inconclusive or to provide additional evidence of a particular result. Of course it is not only athletes who may undergo testing via urine analysis wherein the specimens must be protected from contamination starting from collection in a cup throughout transfer and analysis of specimen samples. Thus, it is often necessary to prevent spillage or contamination of liquid specimens throughout any transport of the specimen or transfer thereof to another container(s).
Most currently used specimen cups do not provide apparatus for transferring of a liquid specimen to a vial or other container for laboratory testing of the specimen.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present disclosure to provide an apparatus for collecting, storing and transferring a liquid specimen that improves over prior art devices.